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Saturday, January 12, 2013

Belgrade Airport expansion continues

New projects for Belgrade Airport in 2013

Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport is continuing its multi million euro expansion and upgrade project. In late February, Serbia’s busiest airport will begin the expansion of its C apron by adding four extra parking spaces for commercial aircraft. The C apron is also used by terminal two and features six air bridges. The added parking spaces will be used by smaller regional jets but also low cost airlines which choose not to pay the extra service of being connected directly to the terminal building. The expansion will increase capacity by 17%. The investment is worth 2.6 million euros and will be financed through the airport’s own funds. Local companies will carry out the construction work which is due for completion this summer.

The expansion of the C apron comes after the airport refurbished part of its terminal one and two gate areas, business class lounge, departure lounges and expanded its security and immigration areas in 2012. The entire expansion project, worth over fifty million euros, will be completed by 2014 and will include the construction of an additional floor above the current terminal two building. During the year, the airport will also replace its terminal one air bridges at a price tag of 2.2 million euros. Furthermore, it has announced that it will reconstruct terminal one, which is used by low cost airlines.

Belgrade Airport’s current two terminal buildings cover an area of 51.000 square metres and have the capacity to handle eight million passengers per year. The airport handled 3.363.919 passengers in 2012.

Perfect opportunity for zagreb airport to pick up some used jetways and hook them up onto our beautiful terminal. I am sure it will take some time before we get the cash from germany for the new terminal.

Why should ZAG take up aged and used air bridges for when they can buy nice new ones? Its not like they can't finance for such.

@ anonymous

The statistics show different, and demand will rise as Serbia opens more to the international market as Slovenia and Croatia have. Belgrade is changing daily and is becoming more of a city break destination, and Serbs are more and more being able to afford air travel, especially with the visa free access to the Schengen Zone. If your comment was to be racist and nationalistic, reserve it to yourself as its not welcome.

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Doot, yes I am aware that you will take the bus but my question is from where. Until now they were using the actual gates. But as Nikola pointed out, it seems that there are some gates under the terminal.

It's also interesting to see that the biggest feeder (IST excluded) for flights to Johannesburg is Sofia (followed by Copenhagen, Stockholm, Milano and Berlin), whereas the biggest feeder for flights to Dubai (again, IST excluded) is Priština, followed by Skopje, Helsinki, Stockholm, Paris.

I don't think those figures will last for a long time ... Something's going on with my favorite European Air Company, Turkish Airlines, they became sooo expensive on all intercontinental routes ! On any route from Asia to Europe one can easily find up to 500 Euros (!!!) cheaper air ticket,with a very good companies. A pity, I adore Istanbul stopover and fantastic Business lounge at Ataturk Airport ... :)

I am terribly sorry but I am not sure I fully understand what you mean by " biggest feeder (IST excluded) for flights to?"Does this mean that on THY flights between IST and airport X, the highest number of pax that do not "originate" or begin their journey from IST are from the listed airports?Thanks for sharing this information!

I don't know why the additional remote stands considering there already is B1-B5 which can accomodate ac such as DC10, B747, An-148, so an ATR isn't a problem. Maybe air bridge parking shouldn't be wasted for ATR's and Q400's. 16 gates with airbridges and 5 remote stands to me seems adequate. Maybe the C apron could be upgraded for 6 widebody gates or 12 narrowbody?

If low cost airlines want remote stand parking, they have 5 already to choose from (B1-B5), as i wrote above, those stands have handled ac such as B747, DC10, An-148, A330, IL-96 etc. An A320 from Wizz for example isn't a problem for the stands, its a matter of whether the airline wants them. Airlines request for the parking positions, being remote stand or terminal gates.

Yes but if you pay attention while at the airport, you will notice that the B gates are always occupied either by some smaller cargo aircraft or by VIP jets. I guess that is why they couldn't rely on them as most of the time they are not free for use.

I like LH, and continue to fly them when i can. The crew are friendly. EK would be a nice addition to BEG for connecting pax, but for that to happen, they need to find pax to fill the front, not just in the back. Attracting cargo would be a big plus too. But considering the Sheikh of Abu Dhabi is atm in Belgrade signing papers to buy Jat Tehnika and a couple other Serbian companies, maybe Etihad coming to BEG is more of a thing to look out for.

I wish the Emirates would buy also JAT Airways and the whole corrupt government(s) in Serbia.I`m sure they would bring in some money andinsight to Serbia how to run companies and a whole country properly...

EK looks at itself and its own expansion, which is why they got rid of their share of SriLankan Airlines. Etihad however is a different story, but i doubt they would be stupid enough to touch Jat let alone buy the company. What BEG does this year will be interesting to follow, who they can attract to come and how much of their expansion/reconstruction materialises.

You are right about those airlines but with the Emirates i meant the government and companies from the UAEs.Belgrade airport could do a lot more if JAT and our lousy politicians wouldn`t hinder them so much(see Pegasus Airlines case).Also a lot of airlines don`t come to Belgrade because they have their own problems.

Would u like to elaborate your comment there. You must be one of those 'big serbs' living in america or australia talking around how much of a serb your are. If your such a serb, go back to Serbia! People like you shame the Serbian name!

Serbian Aviation Authority doesn't deny licences to airlines who apply to fly to Serbian cities. However, the problem with Pegasus was the rights signed between Turkey and Yugoslavia that hindered Pegasus to enter Serbia, now ammended they gained their licences.

Airlines don't come to BEG is because their isn't much of a market for them that is worth materialising with their own metal, their prices are too high to which people avoid them (SK) or as you say their own problems (BT, VV).

This is still custom in many airports (VIE, DXB, SIN, FRA...). The extra security will be removed once the arrivals and departures are seperated, but that will not happen before the new floor is built.

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